Samuel D. Hodge Jr., chair of Fox School of Business’ Legal Studies Department, is co-author of Clinical Anatomy for Lawyers, the recently published first installment in a series of medical-legal textbooks published by the American Bar Association.
Hodge teaches law and anatomy at Temple University, and he is also an in-demand lecturer who has spoken at conferences and seminars across the country about his particular area of self-taught expertise: anatomy and trauma. Hodge has a gift for breaking down complex medical terms and concepts into metaphors that make sense to the least scientific person in the audience.
“Medicine plays a large role in the practice of law from a claim for personal injury to ascertaining the cause of death in a homicide investigation,” Hodge said. “My research fills that void by supplying attorneys with an explanation of how the human body works along with tips on how to present medical evidence to a jury or judge.”
In Clinical Anatomy for Lawyers, Hodge and co-author Dr. Jack E. Hubbard of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine provide an understanding of the human body and its many systems with the sophistication of a medical text and the ease of a For Dummies guide. In addition to the various systems – such as the skeletal, nervous, muscular and reproductive – the textbook covers trauma, immune disorders, pain and diagnostic imaging, which is what led Hodge to learn more about anatomy.
It was while reading a scholarly article that Hodge, a color-blind aspiring artist, saw a color image generated by a new diagnostic test that reminded him of an abstract painting. Anatomy had him at a glance.
Now, he’s the author of five other published textbooks – Law and Society, Thermography and Personal Injury Litigation, The Legal Environment of the New Millennium and, with Hubbard, Anatomy for Litigators, a book that was named the best legal publication in 2007. As part of the new medical series for the American Bar Association, Hodge will author three more medical-legal guides during the next five years. These books will cover the spine, traumatic brain injuries and diagnostic tests.
Medical Fun Facts
These oddities of the human body are drawn from a slideshow Hodge uses before he delivers a lecture.
- Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.
- The brain itself cannot feel pain.
- The tooth is the only part of your body that can’t heal itself.
- Fingernails grow nearly four times faster than toenails.
- If saliva cannot dissolve something, you can’t taste it.
- You get a new stomach lining every three to four days.
- Women’s hair is about half the diameter of men’s hair.
- A full bladder is roughly the size of a softball.
- The human body is estimated to have 60,000 miles of blood vessels.
- Women blink twice as many times as men do.
Two Fox School of Business professors and their College of Science and Technology research partner recently received a $95,000 grant from French research foundation CIGREF for a project developing the new interdisciplinary field of organizational genetics, which applies analytic tools used in evolutionary biology to the study of organizational processes. This is the third grant the project has attracted thus far and brings the project’s total funding to about $400,000.
The grant proposal was sent to CIGREF by Assistant Professor of Biology Rob Kulathinal, Fox Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems (MIS) Sunil Wattal and Fox MIS Professor Youngjin Yoo. Their proposal received the highest score among all proposals sent to CIGREF this year. The research has also received funding from Fox’s Young Scholar Forum, a bi-annual event that provides seed funding to Fox faculty and PhD students with interdisciplinary research projects.
The organizational genetics project is titled “VOSS-Collaborative Research: Evolution in Virtualized Design Processes in Project-Based Design Organizations,” and is led by Kulathinal and Yoo, who is also director of Temple University’s Center for Design+Innovation, which is based at the Fox School.
The project’s inspiration came when the researchers noticed that technological innovations develop in patterns resembling the evolution of natural organisms. The researchers hope that identifying the underlying traits driving this technological evolution will enable business leaders to maximize firms’ innovation and performance.
The research – which targets the automotive, microprocessor and building industries – also seeks to hasten other industries’ technological breakthroughs, from eco-friendly smart-grids in the energy sector, to “pervasive healthcare” in the medical sector, to social media.
“This shows that the investments that the school is making to support interdisciplinary research pays off,” Yoo said. “I hope Fox continues to encourage our junior colleagues as well as doctoral students to aim at innovative and groundbreaking ideas.”
– Carl O’Donnell
Fox’s First Ever Sensory Marketing Conference a Success
June 19, 2014 //
Human beings are constantly engaging the five senses. But how does this sensory experience impact a consumer’s choice behavior?
This question was explored at the Fox School of Business’ first-ever sensory marketing conference, Understanding the Customer’s Sensory Experience. The conference was held on June 5th and 6th, at Alter Hall, home of Temple University’s Fox School of Business and School of Tourism and Hospitality Management.
The conference focused on the nature of the five human senses, their role in affecting consumer behavior and emotion, and their application within a range of settings, including product and service design.
Fox School of Business marketing professor Maureen Morrin and School of Tourism and Hospitality Management professor Daniel Fesenmaier co-hosted the event.
Attendees included marketing and tourism research experts, doctoral students studying within these disciplines, executives of marketing firms, and industry professionals responsible for developing and improving the consumer experience.
“One of the main goals was to bring together both academics and practitioners who are interested in sensory marketing,” Morrin, Director of the Fox School of Business’ Consumer Sensory Innovation Lab, said. “Just getting industry professionals involved and having them see what we’re working on and researching, and to see what their problems are, I think, is helpful.”
At least one conference attendee plans to take advantage of the partnerships the conference established.
“It was extremely stimulating to bring together academics, people from [the] industry and specialists within each category,” Stephen Gould, a marketing professor at Baruch College, said. “As a professor, I plan to follow up with at least one of the industry presenters who I met at the conference.”
The conference was sponsored by the Fox School of Business, the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, and the National Laboratory for Tourism and eCommerce.
Events included a corporate panel led by executives from firms including Mane USA, Scents Marketing, ScentAir, and HCD Research. Another panel, composed of academic research laboratory directors, led discussions on how they established, operate, and fund their laboratories. Numerous research presentations were given, with topics ranging from multisensory processing, to product and packaging development.
Conference attendees left with many new ideas, thanks to the different perspectives offered by the presenters. Adriana Madzharov, of the Stevens Institute of Technology, felt that the combination of research presentations, corporate panels, and research laboratory discussions offered a unique and fulfilling experience.
“The conference presented a perfect combination and balance between these three very different approaches to studying sensory customer experiences,” Madzharov said. “Personally, the amount of knowledge and valuable contacts that I acquired in such a short time during the conference makes it for me the best professional experience so far.”
Megan Whelan
Human Resource Management Professor In-Sue Oh wins Early Achievement Award from the Academy of Management’s HR Division
June 18, 2014 //
Associate Professor of Human Resource Management In-Sue Oh has recently been chosen as the winner of the Academy of Management’s Early Career Achievement Award in the Human Resources Division.
“I was very excited, because this award has been presented to some big stars in the field for over seven years. I’m a junior scholar who earned a PhD in 2009 and very happy to receive this award during the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management which will be held in our city, Philadelphia,” Oh said of this notable achievement.
The Early Career Achievement Award is given to a scholar who has made distinguished contributions to their field within seven years of receiving their PhD. Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology Christopher Berry, a former recipient of the Early Career Achievement Award, nominated Oh for this award.
Oh has published over fifty journal articles, including sixteen papers published in top-tier journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personnel Psychology. Additionally, Oh has made more than fifty scholarly presentations at major international conferences.
Oh has been an award-winning scholar for some time, including receiving the Hogan Award from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Foundation. Other scholarly awards Oh has received include the Meredith P. Crawford Fellowship from Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO), the James C. Johnson Paper Competition Award from the International Personnel Assessment Council, and the International Research Excellence Award from the Korean Academy of Management.
“It would be hard for me to imagine any other junior scholar accomplishing such noteworthy achievement,” Berry said in his nomination letter, “and in this vein, I firmly believe this has established him as an outstanding researcher in our field.”
There are two hopes Oh has from receiving this award.
First, he hopes that this award will open up more opportunities for him to serve as an (associate) editor of a top-tier academic journal. Secondly, he hopes that his achievement will reflect positively on Temple University and the Fox School of Business, with broader recognition and increasing the caliber of PhD students and faculty members that are recruited.
“I’ve only been here at Temple University for two years, and my overall experience has been very positive,” Oh said. “My colleagues are very collegial, and my department Chair and the Deans have been very supportive of my research.”
Oh will receive the award during the 74th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management to be held in Philadelphia this August.
—Alexis Wright-Whitley
The Farther the Meeting, the Worse the News
June 18, 2014 //
If annual shareholder meetings are held far away from home headquarters, earnings results may not be as up to par as companies want them to be.
A new study by Yuanzhi “Lily” Li of the Fox School of Business at Temple University, and David Yermack of New York University, titled Evasive Shareholder Meetings, found that companies tend to schedule meetings in remote locations when managers have information about future performance they want to keep private to avoid scrutiny by shareholders, activists and media.
The research team gathered data including location, days of the week, and the start time of 9,616 annual meetings between 2006 and 2010. Their findings indicate a systematic pattern of poor company performance, which followed annual meetings that are, moved a great distance away from headquarters.
“If managers don’t want to answer questions, they’ll make it harder for shareholders to attend,” Li said.
The paper cites an example using meeting locations of TRW Automotive Holdings, an auto parts manufacturer. The company held its 2007 annual meeting in McAllen, Texas, over 1,400 miles away from its headquarter located just outside Detroit, and more than 300 miles from the nearest major airport. In 2006 and 2008 to 2010, the company held its meetings in New York City. Coincidentally, in 2007, the company’s stock price fell from $38.97 to $25.90.
“We’re surprised by just how far managers are going to avoid activists and shareholders,” Li said.
Company bylaws may specify that meetings must take place with a recurring date or location, but often times, the board of directors are given the flexibility in choosing the site of the meeting.
Li and Yermack found that seventy-one percent of shareholder meetings take place within five miles of the what the managers would refer to as the “home office,” while sixteen percent occur between five and fifty miles away. They also noticed that twenty-nine percent of annual meetings take place more than fifty miles from a major airport.
Li believes companies and managers should change their practices, making it easier for shareholders to attend these annual meetings, allowing voting to take place with a higher quorum.
“Companies should be holding annual meetings closer to home,” Li said. “ We will be glad to see a law coming that says companies should always hold meetings in a close proximity to its headquarters so that local shareholders and analysts can easily attend.”
—Alexis Wright-Whitley
The Fox School of Business is welcoming 17 new full-time faculty members to seven of nine departments in the 2012-13 academic year as the school continues to increase its research output and respond to the high demand for its courses and programs.
The Fox School’s new faculty members were educated at prestigious universities across the world, and some join the school from tenure-track positions at institutions including the University of Maryland and Purdue University. Many of Fox’s faculty members also join the school with deep industry experience, including positions at Merck, ING Financial Services and Yahoo!
The new faculty members have published research on topics ranging from family-owned firms and social-network analysis to technology entrepreneurship and trust and justice in employment relationships. Included in the new faculty are Department of Finance Chair and Professor Ronald C. Anderson and Seymour Wolfbein Professor of Accounting Lawrence D. Brown.
Since 2008, the Fox School has welcomed nearly 90 new full-time faculty members, bringing its total to 180.
“Our new faculty members include stellar researchers who have remarkable publication records and many articles in top-tier journals,” Dean M. Moshe Porat said. “Combine this with stellar teaching credentials across all of our new faculty, and the Fox School continues to be well-equipped to further enhance our reputation for outstanding research and to effectively teach and mentor tomorrow’s business leaders.”
Fox School of Business PhD students, faculty and staff gathered for the third annual Doctoral Programs Research Competition on Oct. 8.
Five award categories — first-year papers, second- year papers, third- and fourth-year pre-dissertation proposal papers, dissertation proposals and completed dissertations — were featured across all PhD-granting concentrations in Business Administration. This was also the first year that the Statistics doctoral program was featured.
Temple University Provost Hai-Lung Dai noticed the enthusiasm in Alter Hall before the competition kicked off.
“The most important thing is this isfun… it’salsoalotofhard work on the students to do research and write these papers. I’d like to thank the advisors for helping because I know that this is long and hard work. I’m looking forward to our fourth competition next year” (Dr. Paul Pavlou, Senior Research Officer)
“I can easily sense the excitement of the research in
the school,” he said. “To see so many young faces reminds me of my graduate days.”
First- and second-year students had their work displayed as part of a poster presentation at the start of the event. Third- and fourth-year competitors gave a three-minute oral presentation, and dissertation proposal competitors gave four-minute oral presentations. Completed dissertations were evaluated based on the completed dissertation itself.
“Your research is much more immediate and has much more of an immediate impact,” Dai told students. “I want to congratulate you all for being able to generate excitement about research.”
Students competed for monetary compensation ranging from $500 for first place, $250 for second place and $100 for third place. The award winners will also be honored during the Fox School’s Research Roundtable and Teaching Awards on Oct. 25.
Associate Dean of Research, Doctoral Programs and Strategic Initiatives Paul A. Pavlou closed the event offering kind words not only to the students who competed but also the faculty who mentored them.
First-place winners of the third annual Doctoral Programs Research Competition:
First-year paper
Chi Zhang, Finance, Managerial Risk-Taking Incentive and Firm Innovation: Evidence from FAS 123R
Second-year paper
Gyu Dong Kim, Risk and Insurance, Insured, Uninsured, or Underinsured: Factors Affecting Auto Insurance Purchases in the U.S.
Third- and fourth-year paper
Serkan Akguc, Finance, Does Private Firms Perform Better than Public Firms? Dissertation Proposal
Yili (Kevin) Hong, MIS, Three Essays on Global Online Labor Markets for IT Services
Dissertation
Gordon Burtch, MIS, An Empirical Examination of Factors Influencing Participant Behavior in Crowdfunded Markets
—Alexis Wright-Whitley
Despite Regulations, Financial Analysts Say Private Calls with Executives are Essential
June 5, 2014 //
A new study of 365 sell-side financial analysts shows that private phone calls with managers remain an essential source of analysts’ earnings forecasts and stock recommendations – even in light of regulations limiting businesses’ selective disclosure of financial information.
More than half of the analysts surveyed by a team of accounting researchers said they make direct contact with executives of companies they cover five or more times per year. The direct contact with management is so important that one analyst said his company hired an FBI profiler to train analysts “to read management teams, to tell when they’re lying, to tell when they were uncomfortable with a question. That’s how serious this whole issue has become.”
“Everyone who reads our paper comes away with something, but one key takeaway is the importance of private conversations between analysts and managers even in a post-Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) world,” said Lawrence D. Brown, the Seymour Wolfbein Distinguished Professor of Accounting at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, who conducted the study with professors at Arizona State University, University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M.
The survey also finds that accurate earnings forecasts and profitable stock recommendations have relatively little direct impact on analysts’ compensation. These findings are derived from a study titled Inside the Black Box of Sell Side Financial Analysts, which presents results of a 23-question survey focused on analysts’ incentives, as well as 18 detailed follow-up interviews.
The study offers insights into an area that is understudied by researchers of the financial industry. While hundreds of articles have sought to predict financial analysts’ choices using models and statistics, few have peered into the “black box” of the organizational contexts and personal psychologies that drive analysts’ decision-making.
The study’s findings also serve as a potential commentary on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD), launched in 2000 to limit selective disclosure of market-moving information to analysts or other key stakeholders prior to the general public.
But respondents noted that companies’ public conference calls discussing quarterly earnings are often followed by one-on-one conversations between analysts and chief financial officers. According to one analyst: “We’re almost back to where we were pre-Reg FD, but not quite because that backroom chatter is shut down. It’s just now it’s not in the backroom; it’s everywhere.”
More insights from the survey include:
- Approximately one quarter of analysts feel pressured by supervisors to lower their earnings forecasts, presumably because outperforming forecasts pleases investors.
- Approximately one quarter of analysts feel pressured by supervisors to raise their recommendations, presumably because it is easier to get their clients to buy rather than to sell the stocks they recommend.
- While only 35 percent of analysts said the profitability of their stock recommendations were a very important determinant of their compensation, 67 percent cited “standing in analyst rankings or broker votes” as central to their compensation.
- Only half of analysts considered primary research “very useful” in forecasting earnings or recommending stocks.
The study was conducted by Lawrence D. Brown, Seymour Wolfbein Distinguished Professor of Accounting at Temple University’s Fox School of Business; Andrew C. Call, Assistant Professor at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business; Michael B. Clement, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business; and Nathan Y. Sharp, Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School. The full text is available on Social Science Research Network at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2228373.
This Semester’s Young Scholars Interdisciplinary Forum Holds Record Number of Proposals
June 5, 2014 //
Fox School of Business students paced back and forth, quietly practicing their presentation for the 8th Young Scholars Interdisciplinary Forum held on April 23rd in the MBA Commons of Alter Hall.
Over fifty students and faculty members enjoyed lunch while the record-breaking number of nineteen proposal groups presented their posters and explained their research projects to the evaluation committee members and guests. The afternoon’s program began with a welcome from Dean. M. Moshe Porat and Associate Dean Paul Pavlou, who is the founder of the Young Scholars program and the school’s Chief Research Officer.
“Each semester marks a greater success than the last, such as this year’s record number of nineteen proposals,” said Pavlou.
So far, over sixty proposals have been funded, which includes more than 115 faculty members and PhD students from the Fox School of Business and School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, but also includes group members from colleges across Temple University, and numerous universities around the world.
The Young Scholars Interdisciplinary Forum is open to current Fox School of Business PhD students and junior members of the Fox School faculty, where they are eligible to submit proposals for seed initial funding to undertake interdisciplinary research projects. An annual amount of $25,000 is dispersed among the proposals to encourage and support early stages of interdisciplinary collaborative research. Proposals typically receive funding ranging from $50 up to $5,000.
The aim of the Young Scholars program is to provide seed funding for students and faculty to pursue high-quality interdisciplinary research that can result in journal publications, additional outside funding grants, and broader recognition of the Fox School of Business’ research work.
For more information on the Young Scholars Interdisciplinary Forum, including recipients of seed-funding for their research work, can be found on the Fox School’s research website.
-Nodyia Fedrick
Youngjin Yoo, professor of management information systems (MIS) and director of the Temple Center for Design+Innovation, has been appointed senior editor for MIS Quarterly (MISQ), one of the premier journals in the discipline. His term, which started May 1, extends to June 30, 2016. He also started his duty as senior editor of Journal of the Association for Information Systems for the Interdisciplinary and Path Breaking Research section as of Sept. 1, 2013.
In addition, his paper titled, Toward Generalizable Sociomaterial Inquiry: A Computational Approach for ‘Zooming In & Out’ of Sociomaterial Routines, has recently been accepted for publication in MISQ. The paper was derived from research on organizational genetics, which applies analytic tools used in evolutionary biology to the study of organizational processes.
“I am humbled by the responsibility of these editorial positions,” Yoo said. “My research often focuses on the fringe of so-called mainstream of our community where I believe a lot of interesting and innovative ideas emerge. I would like to help other colleagues who pursue such innovative research programs in publishing and disseminating their ideas.”
Yoo, working with MIS Assistant Professors Sunil Wattal and Bin Zang, as well as Temple biology Assistant Professor Rob Kulathinal, has received $675,000 in grant funding for organizational genetics research from the National Science Foundation and French research foundation CIGREF.
Yoo is also principal investigator for Temple’s Urban Apps and Maps Studios, a university-wide initiative in which Temple students and faculty work with community members to create data sets and apps that address real city needs. Yoo particularly wants local middle- and high-school students to participate in hopes that they will grow into “civil digital entrepreneurs.”
Among his other recent achievements, Yoo was ranked ninth globally for research output, from 2010 to 2012, in the top two MIS journals: MISQ and Information Systems Research. He was also named one of the 52 “bold minds” in Philadelphia Magazine’s 2012 list of The Smartest People in Philadelphia. –Alexis Wright-Whitley
Mike Obal, a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at the Fox School of Business, recently won the 2013 Robert Robicheaux Dissertation Proposal Award from the Society for Marketing Advances (SMA).
“It’s just really exciting to win an international award,” he said. “I know that it’s the type of award that people from various countries compete for, so it’s nice to get that recognition from a reputable, external organization.”
Those who had meritorious dissertation proposals with a research focus in supply chain management or business-to-business marketing were encouraged to apply for the award from SMA. Proposals were evaluated through a blind-review format. SMA, a premier marketing association, hosts an annual conference that brings together marketing educators and professionals from throughout the United States and abroad. It currently has members from 34 countries.
Obal’s dissertation examines the adoption and acceptance of disruptive technologies within firms. Disruptive technologies are a type of technology that starts as a niche product but falls short of a primary technology. Over time, this type of technology improves to the point that it actually replaces the primary technology, therefore disrupting the market.
“However, predicting what technologies will be disruptive and which ones won’t has been a long-standing issue in marketing, management information systems and other fields,” Obal said.
He specifically studied cloud computing and how firms are deciding whether to move away from more traditional software in favor of cloud computing platforms.
Obal was drawn to this type of research because he saw an opportunity to fill gaps in academic literature and a lack of understanding of key technologies, such as cloud computing, from a practitioner’s standpoint. Companies that consider purchasing this type of technology consistently have issues in determining who to buy the products from and what to look for in cloud-computing packages.
“It’s this realistic sort of issue that firms don’t necessarily have a straight answer for,” Obal said.
In February 2013, Obal completed his dissertation proposal, titled “Analyzing the Roles of Buyers, Suppliers and Employees on the Adoption of Disruptive Technology.” As part of the SMA recognition, he won a trip to Hilton Head, S.C., where he will receive a $500 award.
Obal’s research interests also include trust development in online marketplaces, the usage of online interpersonal ties in purchasing decisions and the role of interorganizational relationships on technology adoption.
Obal has published in Industrial Marketing Management, the Journal of Service Management and the International Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications. He has also presented at conferences — including the American Marketing Association (AMA), the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS), and the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) — and represented Temple at the 2012 AMA-Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium.
Before coming to the Fox School, Obal was an instructor of business and coordinator for the Community Center for Entrepreneurship at Bunker Hill Community College. He has also worked as a search-marketing specialist at iProspect, a sales manager at the Boston Beer Company and a graduate assistant at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Obal obtained an MBA in marketing from UMass Boston and a BS in marketing from Syracuse University. –Alexis Wright-Whitley
Fox PhD in Statistics Graduate Lands Tenure-Track Position at St. Joseph’s University
June 5, 2014 //
Former Fox School of Business PhD student Nicolle Clements has received an assistant professor position on a tenure track at St. Joseph’s University (SJU). Clements served as a visiting professor at SJU until graduating in May 2013, when she received her PhD in statistics.
While at Temple, Clements, under the advisement of Cyrus H. K. Curtis Professor and Department of Statistics Chair Sanat Sarkar, focused her research on multiple testing procedures that control the False Discovery Rate (FDR) and mixed directional FDR in applications where the data has a spatial structure, such as changes in vegetation.
Two papers from her PhD dissertation, Multiple Testing in Grouped Dependent Data, have been published or accepted for publication. In 2012, Astronomical transient detection controlling the false discovery rate was published in Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy, and Applying Multiple Testing Procedures to Detect Changes in East African Vegetation has been accepted for publication in the Annals of Applied Statistics.
Clements is an Omega Rho Honor Society Faculty Member, SJU Chapter. She also currently teaches three courses at St. Joseph’s: Business Statistics, Business Analytics and Data Mining. Before joining the Fox School’s PhD in statistics program, Clements obtained a master’s in statistics from Virginia Tech and a bachelor’s in mathematics from Millersville University.
—Alexis Wright-Whitley
Why do you think you stood out from other candidates when you applied to St. Joseph’s?
I work in the business intelligence department of the school, which is a combination of statistics and information science, and the department was hiring someone who understood the statistics side of it. I had research experience from my work at Temple, and I also had teaching experience from being a graduate TA at Temple and Virginia Tech.
What are you most looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to getting advisees, working closely with students, and becoming more of a mentor. I’m also looking forward to teaching a variety of classes, specifically more upper-level classes in the department. I’m ready to get my feet wet.
What attracted you to the Fox School?
Part of the reason I was attracted to the Fox School was because the statistics department was located within the school of business. Usually, it’s within the mathematics department or the school of arts and sciences, but at Temple, the department was affiliated with the Fox School, which I really liked. I also liked the Philadelphia location, since I’m originally from the area. I got my master’s from Virginia Tech, so it was nice to come back to this area for my PhD.
What drew you to focus on multiple testing?
During my dissertation research, I worked closely with Dr. Sarkar. Multiple testing is Dr. Sarkar’s specialty, and I was lucky to learn a lot from him. In addition, I have an interest in environmental research, so I enjoyed when we applied multiple testing research to astronomical data and vegetation data.
What is your role at St. Joseph’s?
I started out as a visiting professor. When I graduated in May, my position converted into a tenure track. Now I teach three courses a semester along with continuing my statistical research. Also, I was nominated to be course coordinator of the required business statistics class, which is an added responsibility.
What research are you currently pursuing?
Currently, I’m wrapping up some research I did with Dr. Sarkar and my other committee members. In addition, I do some statistical consulting at the Treatment Research Institute, which is a nonprofit organization that does research on substance use.
What do you miss about Temple?
I miss several things about Temple University, including the department, fellow students, and faculty members. I miss the great atmosphere and camaraderie.
How would you describe the Fox PhD program to a prospective student?
I would describe the Statistics degree in the Fox PhD program as rigorous and challenging – but in a good way. The Fox School is a great supporter of the statistics department and its students. I would definitely recommend the program to students, especially those looking to study and/or stay within the Philadelphia region.
MB Sarkar Appointed H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
June 5, 2014 //
Dr. Mitrabarun “MB” Sarkar, Professor in the Department of Strategic Management and founding Academic Director of the Global Immersion Program at the Fox School of Business, has been named the H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest Professorship in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Dr. Sarkar has been a member of the schools faculty since 2008, and his appointment to the Lenfest Professorship began Jan. 1, 2014.
This distinguished professorship is named in honor of H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, the well-known media entrepreneur and philanthropist. In 2006, he received the Musser Award for Excellence in Leadership from the Fox School, its highest honor. Lenfest is a trustee of Temple University.
“We are indebted to Gerry for his invaluable contributions to Temple University over many years,” said M. Moshe Porat, Dean of the Fox School of Business. “We are especially grateful to Gerry for his generosity in making it possible to create this endowed professorship in entrepreneurship and innovation, which are two of the most important pillars of our strategy as we transition into creating a world-class research, teaching and service institution in Philadelphia.”
According to Rajan Chandran, Vice Dean of the Fox School of Business, Sarkar is a perfect fit with the criteria for the professorship, established to advance the teaching and research of a distinguished professor whose work is focused on the intersection of entrepreneurship, innovation and strategy.
“Our school has benefited from MB Sarkar’s exceptional teaching, research and leadership in these areas over the past five years,” Chandran said. “We take great satisfaction that he now continues that work in the Lenfest Professorship.”
Sarkar said he is “deeply honored and humbled” to be selected for the professorship, and thankful to Lenfest for making it possible. He also expressed gratitude to Porat and Chandran for their confidence and support in selecting him for the Lenfest Professorship, and for their unceasing leadership and support of several initiatives of which Sarkar is a part.
“Fox is an incredibly stimulating place to be,” Sarkar said. “It is imbued with an entrepreneurial spirit, and embraces innovation and excellence in all domains of research, teaching and service. I look forward to being a part of the team that takes this great school to new heights as we face several disruptive and exciting changes in the higher-education landscape.”
Sarkar is a renowned scholar and a highly decorated professor. In 2013, he received the Great Teacher Award, which is Temple University’s highest honor. He has also received the Outstanding Professor of the Year Award from the Fox Professional MBA Program in 2009, 2011 and 2013; from the Fox Online MBA Program in 2011 and 2013; and from the Fox Executive MBA Program in 2012 and 2014.
Sarkar’s research examines the impact of innovation and entrepreneurship on firm performance. His recent projects examine the scientific knowledge structure of firms and the search for recombinant capabilities in the semi-conductor industry, how technological pre-adaptation enabled incumbents to maneuver through disruptive change in the robotics industry, and the effect of prior experience on technological entry during the emergence phase of the LED industry.
His research has been published in several top-tier scientific journals, including The Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, Organization Science, Journal of Business Venturing, and Journal of International Business Studies,among others.He serves on the editorial review boards of the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal and the Global Strategy Journal.
In 2004, his co-authored work on entrepreneurial spin-offs was recognized as the Best Paper at the Academy of Management Journal. In 2000, he received the Best Dissertation Award from the Academy of Marketing Sciences and was honored as runner-up in the 2000 American Marketing Association’s Doctoral Dissertation Competition.
Prior to joining Temple, Sarkar received his MBA from the India Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; an undergraduate degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi; and his PhD from Michigan State University.
Sarkar is the past Chair of the Entrepreneurship & Strategy Interest Group of the Strategic Management Society and has served as Chair of the Strategic Management Society’s Special India Conferences in 2008 and 2013. He also led the SMS Memorial Conference held in the memory of Professor C.K. Prahalad in San Diego in 2011. He is on the Board of Advisors of DLabs, an accelerator funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and situated at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Prior to his entering academia, Sarkar founded and ran an entrepreneurial venture in television production, which had pioneered private participation in what was until then a completely state-owned medium. –Alexis Wright-Whitley
Arvind Parkhe, chair of the Strategic Management Department at the Fox School of Business, was recently ranked as having the highest citation count and highest average citations per paper of all of the recipients of the Academy of International Business (AIB) Best Dissertation Award from 1987 through 2012.
The late Alan Rugman, dean of the AIB Fellows, and Daniel O’Connell of the University of Reading, wrote an article about the past winners of the AIB Best Dissertation Award and examined how those winners fared through the years in terms of research output and publications in top journals. Impact of research was measured by looking at the number of times an article was cited in reputable journals.
“The more that people cite your articles, the more influential your work is,” Parkhe said. “You wrote something important for people to draw upon, base their thesis and arguments on. I was pleasantly surprised to be ranked at the top.”
The number of articles published, especially in top-tier journals, and the number of citations collected are some of the other metrics used to evaluate the impact AIB Best Dissertation Award winners have had.
Parkhe’s dissertation studied the structuring of strategic alliances – partnerships between two companies – using two theoretical lenses, game theory and transaction cost economics. He analyzed data from 342 real-world alliances to draw conclusions on how companies that are involved in strategic alliances can practice and promote cooperation and eliminate non-cooperative (cheating) behavior. His dissertation was completed at Temple University in July 1989, at which time Parkhe joined the faculty at Indiana University (Bloomington).
Parkhe received a similar award, the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) Decade Award, in 2001. JIBS examined the top articles published within it and looked at the impact during a 10-year period. Parkhe’s article, which was published in 1991, was judged to have the greatest impact between 1991 and 2001.
“Research impact matters. I consider it a great honor to have won a decade award and a research excellence award and to have been asked to become an editor of a top journal,” Parkhe said, referring to his time as editor of Academy of Management Review.
Parkhe, who currently serves as vice president of the Consortium for Undergraduate International Business Education (CUIBE), said his successes reflect well not only on him but also on the school and on his colleagues – just as their successes reflect positively on him. “A rising tide lifts all boats,” he said. –Alexis Wright-Whitley
Daniel C. Funk Named to Inaugural Class of Sport Marketing Association Research Fellows
June 5, 2014 //
Temple University School of Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM) Professor Daniel C. Funk recently received the Research Fellow Award from the Sport Marketing Association (SMA) for excellence in the area of sport marketing research.
The work Funk disseminated through SMA and Sport Marketing Quarterly (SMQ), SMA’s official journal, was honored at SMA’s conference in Albuquerque, N.M., on Oct. 23-26.
Funk stood out as a distinctive SMA member who encourages high standards of research and other forms of scholarship among SMA’s members. He has participated in nearly 20 grant-funded projects, has written a refereed scholarly book, an industry book and a sport marketing textbook, numerous book chapters, and has authored or contributed to more than 80 articles published in a variety of top journals. He was also recently appointed editor of SMQ.
“Being named a research fellow by the Sport Marketing Association was a great honor,” Funk said. “This year was the inaugural class of SMA research fellows with six other faculty members from across the United States receiving the award. It was a privilege to be selected and receive the award at the national conference alongside some of the best sport marketing researchers in the field.”
Funk’s research and consultancies focus on understanding factors that explain consumer involvement and behavior in order to improve internal and external marketing functions. His research offers marketing and management solutions to businesses, communities and government agencies that provide sport, recreation and tourism services and products.
Funk, a professor of sport and recreation management, is a Washburn Senior Research Fellow and director for research and PhD programs at STHM. He is also a member of Temple’s Sport Industry Research Center. Funk holds appointments with the Griffith Business School in Australia, the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science in South Africa and the Faculty of Educational Services at the University Putra Malaysia in Malaysia.
–Alexis Wright-Whitley